Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign I'm Ben and welcome to the show where you and I gather around this campfire to hear some of our fellow campers scariest experiences.
[00:00:14] Whether you're a new or returning one, I'm glad you're here.
[00:00:19] Tonight we will hear a story read straight from the email as it was sent in by the submitter. Not something I usually do, but there was some charm in this email.
[00:00:29] So without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story?
[00:00:36] Hi Ben, I love your show.
[00:00:39] I often listen to it late at night to relax before bed while I know you're telling scary stories. The vibe is very, shall I say relaxing.
[00:00:51] Anyways, I'd been a nurse working night at my local hospital for four years.
[00:00:56] Er mostly, but I floated to MedSurg a lot where the short staffed go to die.
[00:01:04] But the night my story takes place was my last shift. Come the following Monday I'd be a first year med student at Tulane.
[00:01:14] That night was supposed to be a celebration, and I guess to a degree it was.
[00:01:20] The night crew brought cupcakes. One of the techs taped a plastic stethoscope to my locker with a post it note that said Good luck doctor.
[00:01:29] Let's just say Smith.
[00:01:32] But the thing is, I haven't been able to stop thinking about what I saw in the hallway that night.
[00:01:38] It started around 2:15 in the morning after rounds. I was charting in the little alcove by the north side of the building when I saw someone standing at the far end of the hallway, just outside the double doors.
[00:01:53] They were barefoot, wearing a hospital gown that hung weirdly low almost to the floor, hair over their face, standing completely still.
[00:02:04] At first I thought it was one of our confused patients.
[00:02:08] We had a Sundowner and room 315 who liked to wander, but she was a tiny woman.
[00:02:15] This person looked large.
[00:02:18] I called out to them, sir, ma' am, do you need help?
[00:02:23] I reached over for the call light.
[00:02:26] They turned and walked out of my sight.
[00:02:29] I checked all the room assignments again and grabbed my keys, headed down towards the double doors.
[00:02:35] But but when I turned the corner, the hallway was empty.
[00:02:39] I checked every patient's room.
[00:02:42] No one was missing. No gowns reported stolen either.
[00:02:46] I even asked the charge nurse if someone from psych had come up. She just raised an eyebrow and said, not unless they can walk through all the locked doors.
[00:02:55] I laughed. Enough. At least I tried to.
[00:02:58] But when I got back to the nurse's station, I pulled up the hallway camera on the computer monitor.
[00:03:04] There was no one there.
[00:03:06] You could just see Me calling out.
[00:03:08] The end of the hallway was just clean and fluorescently lit.
[00:03:14] I replayed the timestamp again.
[00:03:16] I could hear myself yelling, but there was no one at the end of the hall.
[00:03:21] I looked like I was yelling into the ether.
[00:03:24] I called security.
[00:03:26] The guy who works the night desk was a good sport. He even came up to walk the floor with me.
[00:03:31] We decided that perhaps I was just tired. That I was eager to get out of here on my last day. That perhaps I was just imagining an experience to take with me. A tale from my old nursing days to tell at med school.
[00:03:45] But here's the thing.
[00:03:47] If that were true, I would have imagined it a second time.
[00:03:51] It was 4:40 in the morning, same night, during the med pass.
[00:03:55] This time the hallway was dark, the light sensors hadn't kicked back on yet, and I was pushing my cart towards room 312 when I saw the person again.
[00:04:06] Same gown, same hair, standing motionless in front of the med room.
[00:04:11] This time they were closer. I could hear the IV pump beeping behind me and the wheels of my cart creaking forward.
[00:04:19] And I swear I could hear a whisper.
[00:04:23] Stay.
[00:04:24] I looked back up at the person but ran back to the nurse's station, leaving my cart in the hallway beeping unattended. I pulled up the security camera again.
[00:04:34] There was no one there.
[00:04:37] Just me.
[00:04:38] The charge nurse told me that I needed to go nap in the on call room.
[00:04:42] I think that maybe she thought I had started celebrating a little early.
[00:04:46] I don't know. But I didn't argue.
[00:04:49] I just laid down on the cot, closed my eyes and dreamed about the sound of monitors flatlining.
[00:04:56] Not just one, but every single one in the building.
[00:05:00] When I woke up it was 6:06 in the morning and there was someone sitting on the edge of the cot.
[00:05:06] They didn't move, just sat there, their back to me, their head tilted like they were listening to something.
[00:05:14] I couldn't see their face, just the outline of their spine pressing against the gown.
[00:05:18] I blinked and they were gone.
[00:05:21] There was no footsteps, no door opening.
[00:05:25] Just poof.
[00:05:27] I didn't report this.
[00:05:30] I couldn't.
[00:05:31] I told myself it was stress, sleep paralysis. I went back out and helped discharge the morning surgicals, gave a report and ate a cupcake.
[00:05:41] But before I left, I checked one last thing. I pulled open the security camera footage again, this time facing the on call room.
[00:05:51] I don't know what I was expecting to see.
[00:05:53] I saw myself go into the room like usual. But then the door opened again.
[00:05:58] About an hour after I went in. There was no one there, but the door just opened and then closed quickly behind it.
[00:06:08] I wish I saved that footage on a flash drive.
[00:06:12] Part of me would love to show it to somebody, but part of me knows that I shouldn't.
[00:06:17] As a healthcare professional, I know more.
[00:06:20] I know all too well the boundaries between life and death, and I know how hard it can be for what is left after death to move on.
[00:06:30] While I thought I heard the whisper telling me to stay, I know that that's not what it wanted me to do at all.
[00:06:37] It wanted me to remember.
[00:06:40] As I left that night, the lights in the hallway flickered.
[00:06:43] And as I walked out and looked down the hallway, I saw that same person standing there wearing the same gown.
[00:06:50] This time looking at me, smiling.
[00:06:54] Thank you Shannon, for allowing me to share your story. Oddly enough, this isn't the first story like this I've heard.
[00:07:00] I think it's fairly common for, as you say, healthcare professionals to be aware of that veil between life and death.
[00:07:07] And also, at least in my experience of gathering stories, I don't think it's entirely uncommon to see things that don't show up on the security camera footage.
[00:07:18] I can think of at least two other stories off of the top of my head that are eerily similar to yours.
[00:07:25] I don't know how long ago this story was for you, but good luck in med school if you were still there, and congratulations on becoming a doctor if this was years ago.
[00:07:35] With that, I have no show announcements, but if you'd like a shout out at the end of an episode or access to our monthly bonus episodes, head over to patreon.com do you want to hear a ghost story?
[00:07:46] But as always, I am just glad to have you all as campers on this journey. So please keep sharing the show with anyone you think might like these stories or someone you're just trying to scare. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review. I would love to hear from you. Until next time.
